The Guitar

I know many of you are on the edge of your seats to check out my first post based on my Renewed Vision post last week (said with sarcasm). But first I thought I should introduce something to you. My guitar.

Seems cheesy right? Well, it kind of is but bare with me.

You see, when I was dating Grace, my soon-to-be father-in-law gave me his Fender guitar. I had never played, yet desired to learn for one reason. To worship the Lord through song in my times with Him.

During that season of life I was living in a little Michigan town called Three Rivers, in a little shack next to a little lake with my little ferret Lovin. I had very little but one thing I did have was that guitar. But I still didn’t know how to play it.

One night, there was a guy that I had previously met at a ministry function, who contacted me and needed a place to stay for a night. His name was Matt Jones and I didn’t know him super well at the time but would later call him a good friend. He had dealt with some significant struggles at that point in his life but was a solid guitar player. That night Matt sat with me and showed me 4 or 5 basic, slightly modified chords, that sounded good and were easy to play and easy to remember. He left the next day but the chords he taught me did not. I would consider that the moment where I really started playing guitar. Thanks Matt.

I wanted to share that story because I am still using that same Fender guitar and the same chords 14 years later to lead my children into times of singing the Scriptures and their own songs to the Lord on a weekly basis. Granted, I’ve become really good at changing up the strumming patterns to help those same chords not get so monotonous. And I’m still pretty embarrassed to say that I can’t play an “F” chord. The Lord knows I’ve tried it but I hate that chord.

In future posts you will hear raw audio of that same guitar and those same chords and I wanted you to know some of the history and the why behind what you will hear. The guitar has trucked quite a few miles over the years with basically no case and is pretty banged up. But my kids don’t care, so neither do I. It still has 6 strings and can be tuned fairly well to lead us in conversation with God.

After all these years, playing the guitar has never become about being the best musician or putting together some music that moves the masses. It’s been and become about leading my family into a time where they can sing freely to the Lord in a way that connects their hearts’ to Him and His Promise of restoration. Where my kids can break out in song, dance, or just listen quietly before the Lord. Where they can be playing with a toy while wholeheartedly singing about the hope of bodily resurrection, the Messiah reigning in Jerusalem or having sincere faith to endure trials that will come. I love the sincerity of heart it brings out in my children. They are experiencing life from singing God’s Word and having intimate fellowship with the living God.

David used singers and music to instill the knowledge of God in the hearts of a nation. Why not my family.

Our goal as a family is not to be good people. Our goal is not to live like we are in a Hallmark movie. Our goal is not to be successful in the eye’s of men. Our goal is to be faithful witnesses to the Day of the Lord and the restoration of all things as we sojourn through a life of the cross and obedience to His leadership.

My guitar has been “instrumental” (pun totally intended) in serving that goal.

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